This invention pertains to a load-monitoring system in a vehicle, and more particularly to such a system which allows a person remote from the vehicle to follow and be aware of the decreasing load-carrying capacity of the vehicle as added load thereon approaches maximum allowable load.
Loading of a vehicle such as a log tractor and trailer can be dangerous. For example, and with reference to such a vehicle, until the loaded logs are bound by chains in the usual log-supporting bunks, there is the continual danger that one or more logs may topple and cause injury and/or damage.
It is typical in modern vehicles of the type indicated to incorporate, in the load-support means, some sort of on-board load-measuring system which produces a readable indication, as for example, in a meter or digital indicator, in the vehicle cab, of the amount of actual load at different points on the vehicle. This is to inform the operator as the load reaches maximum load, and so as to avoid highway penalties for overloads. Typically, and during a loading operation, such as the loading of logs, the operator sits in the cab of the vehicle watching the load-indicating apparatus, and when load approaches maximum load, he steps out of the cab, and often approaches the loading operator, to indicate load status. This is the point in time where risk to the operator, as he steps out alongside the yet unbound load, is extremely high. A number of serious accidents, including deaths, have resulted from a load toppling onto an operator at this time.
A general object of the present invention is to provide a load count-down system which may be operated, either manually by a vehicle operator from within the vehicle, or automatically in response to the load-measuring system in the vehicle, to indicate clearly to the remote loading operator vehicle load status.
Another object of the invention is to provide such a system which is simple in construction, simple in operation, and easily incorporated in a wide variety of existing vehicles.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, what is proposed is a digital indicating means mountable, for example, on the back side of a cab in a vehicle, and elevatable to different selected heights so as to be visible above the top of any expected load. In one embodiment of the invention this indicating means is operated through manually controlled mechanism within the vehicle cab to indicate the still-available load carrying capacity of the vehicle, in a preselected range immediately below the maximum allowed load for the vehicle. In another embodiment of the invention, an automatic system is contemplated, wherein the load-indicating means is under the direct non-manual control of the on-board load-measuring system in the vehicle.
With the proposed system, it is under no circumstances necessary for an operator to stand anywhere near alongside a partially loaded vehicle, since it is not necessary for him directly to signal the loading operator of load status. In the first-mentioned embodiment, the vehicle operator remains in the cab controlling the indication of the outwardly visible load-indicating means. In the second-mentioned embodiment of the invention, where automatic control is contemplated, the vehicle operator may either be in the cab or at some point outside the cab and outside the field of danger.
These and other objects and advantages which are attained by the invention will become more fully apparent as the description which now follows is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.